Martijn van de Koolwijk
Welcome, listeners, to the audio webcast of the presentation of the annual results 2025 of Royal Heijmans. In the upcoming minutes, you will hear at first our CEO, Mr.
Ton Hillen, followed by our CFO, Mr. Gavin van Boekel.
There is no opportunity to ask questions online. There is only opportunity for the people here present in Amsterdam to ask questions.
I would like to ask you to state your name and the company you are representing as a gesture to our listeners online if you ask the questions through the microphone. Mr.
Ton Hillen, the floor is yours.
Ton Hillen
Thank you, Martijn. Ladies and gentlemen, this morning we published the 2025 annual results of Royal Heijmans.
2025 was a strong and successful year for Heijmans and lays the foundation for a profitable growth. As usual, we'll start this meeting with a short video showing the highlights of the past year.
You can see that Heijmans has once again delivered many high-profile projects. This despite global unrest and unstable political climate in the Netherlands.
Over the past year, Heijmans has further shaped its strategic agenda, and the financial results are certainly satisfactory. Despite the current tight labor market, Heijmans managed to grow its workforce to approximately 6,100 employees, an increase of 8%.
Heijmans remains an attractive employer. This was demonstrated, among other things, at the Heijmans Family Festival, organized by and for employees, where we welcomed more than 4,500 colleagues and their families to get better acquainted with Heijmans and the construction sector.
The results of the employee engagement survey, with a participation rate of 84% and a great NPS score of around 36 for the construction sector, also shows that many employees recommend Heijmans as an employer. That's something to be really proud of.
Now let's go look at the safety performance. Despite the fact that Heijmans always prioritizes safety in its operations, we are confronted a fatal accident last year involving the operator's lift of a tower crane on a construction site in Tilburg.
Although it had been shut down due an unsafe situation, a mechanic from a subcontractor lost his life during the repair. This has deeply affected us all.
It underlines once again how essential continued attention to safety within Heijmans and throughout the entire construction sector is and must be. As to our safety policy, we focused last year on further tightening safety procedures, specifically addressing high-risk activities, promoting safe behavior by encouraging the reporting of safe and unsafe situations while reinforcing leadership and role-model behavior, and deploying safety innovations, such as an emergency brake assistant and the AI environment assistant for heavy equipment.
We observed that our TRIR indication, the total recordable incident ratio, which is a safety measure of work-related accidents, is 7.2. We see an improving safety culture at Heijmans, but it can and must still be better.
There's an increased willingness to report safe and unsafe situations, with an increase of near-misses reporting, which has enabled us to take proactive measures to improve safety. During the infrastructure works, road users, unfortunately, pay less and less attention to the people working on or alongside the road.
A striking example earlier this year was a motorist slaloming around cones marking roadworks. Irritation among drivers caused by increasing delays due to roadworks is rising, and the number of road users ignoring red crosses above lanes is worrying.
With the major task ahead to replace our infrastructure, delays will likely only increase in the coming years. Therefore, I call on all road users, please respect our road workers, even in case of delays.
We are increasingly using digital tools to instruct colleagues in advance about the layout of construction sites. With VR headsets, we are able to simulate construction scenarios, which prepare employees to help them perform in a safer way.
Beyond all our daily activities and ongoing projects, large and small, 2025 was also marked by our strategic agenda: Together towards 2030, based on five pillars: wellbeing, sustainability, connection, producibility, and team. Last year, the focus was on translating societal challenges into concrete, feasible solutions.
This has enabled us to drive integrated business innovations rather than isolated initiatives. Some examples in the area of producibility includes an increase in modular and industrial production of homes in our timber frame factory in Heerenveen, optimization and sustainability improvements of the OPTIO housing concept at Woon, a successful collaboration with TenneT to assemble standardized prefab high-voltage modules in a factory setting, contributing to safer, more predictable, and more efficient processes, fully in line with our goal of working twice as smart instead harder, and in large-scale non-residential buildings, cables and pipes are increasingly installed using modular skids.
Pipeline routes are assembled offsite in frames and mounted as complete modules to the ceiling. This improves working conditions, increases quality, keeps workspaces tidier, and accelerates the realization process.
When looking at our financial performance, we are pleased with what has been achieved over the past year and what has been structurally built in recent years. Heijmans is already been a robust and stable company for some years, with a proven track record.
Thanks to the efforts of all our employees. Revenue in 2025 amounted to just under the €2.8 billion, with an underlying EBITDA of €252 million, resulting in a margin of 9.1%, and a net profit on €130 million, what is 4.7%.
This is a 45% increase in net profit. During the General Meeting of Shareholders, we will propose distributing 50% of this net profit as a cash dividend.
The order book has remained strong and grew to €3.7 billion. In addition, recurring services activities and asset management contracts continue to grow on top of defense projects.
In recent years, we have also seen step-by-step improvement, year by year, in the quality of the order book. Heijmans expects to achieve around €3.1 billion in revenue in 2026, including the Hegeman acquisition, with an underlying EBITDA growing towards 9.5%.
Given the enormous construction challenges in our country in housing, infrastructure, the replacement and renovation of roadworks, the grid overload, the High Water Protection Programme, and the upcoming defense-related construction works, it's essential for Heijmans to remain selective in tenders and focus on work aligned with our core competencies. Can we deliver it based on experience and available staff?
Does the project strike the right balance between risk acceptance and earning potential? We have great confidence in these prospects in the coming years.
Then to the housing market. Although the pressure on the housing market remains high, Heijmans sold about 3,100 homes.
Sales of ground-level homes increased, and consumer demand for such homes remains strong. However, in the inner-city apartment market, we see a slight cooling down in sales.
In planning, there is an oversupply of inner-city apartments that are increasingly difficult to develop profitably under the two-thirds affordability rule imposed by municipalities. For 2026, we expect stable or slightly declining home sales due to ongoing market disruptions.
The housing market still lacks consistent policy and decisiveness. The never-ending nitrogen issue remains unresolved.
Many real estate investors are avoiding the Dutch housing market, and the growing shortage of local government staff to assess and guide projects is causing delays. In addition, the permitting process continues to hinder project execution.
This cocktail of obstacles have led to it that we have not succeeded in accelerating housing production in recent years. For Heijmans, the housing market remains an important driver.
Given our strong position, the ambition of the new cabinet, and ambition enjoying wide political support, as well as the substantial demand for housing, there are many opportunities. Solve this cocktail of obstacles and things could so much be better.
Then the non-residential and infrastructure market. If the Netherlands want to remain competitive and maintain the economic growth needed for our prosperity, as highlighted in the report by Pieter Duinen, a vital infrastructure is essential.
This concerns not only aging road network, but also water systems, aviation, railway, energy, and digital infrastructure. In recent decades, infrastructure maintenance budgets have been reduced drastically for years.
The nitrogen issue has also not helped to encourage investment in the infrastructure expansion. Meanwhile, the intensity and load on our largely post-war infrastructure has only increased.
With the substantial defense-related construction work tasks ahead, pressure on infrastructure will increase even further and give Heijmans new opportunities for our construction activities. The changing security situation in Europe requires a strong military and modern defense real estate.
With the start of the Technology Center Land project in Leusden, we already contributing our expertise to strengthen the armed forces. We also be renovating the runway at Eindhoven Airbase.
Heijmans also participates in the new Command Post Real Estate, a partnership between the Ministry of Defence, the Central Government Real Estate Agency, and market parties, linking the strengths of military infrastructure to construction sector knowledge, capacity, and innovation. In addition, this urgent and challenging appeal to develop new forms of collaboration also provides Heijmans with an opportunity to accelerate digitalization and modular industrial production.
By bundling similar projects in a pipeline rather than treating each bridge or viaduct as a standalone object, efficiency gains can be achieved, and repeatable improvements can reduce costs. Heijmans is eager to take this on.
It can be done together. Given the major societal challenges, we expect strong growth in working and connecting projects in the coming years.
I now hand over you to Gavin van Boekel for the financial figures per segment and Heijmans' sustainability agenda.
Gavin van Boekel
Thank you, Ton. It is once again my pleasure to further explain the financial results of our great company.
With satisfaction, we look back on 2025. All business segments once again achieved profitable growth.
With an underlying EBITDA margin of 9.1% for the total company, we performed above the strategic bandwidth of 7% to 9% for 2027, as communicated at our Capital Markets Day in 2024. Heijmans has also shown, once again this past year, that it is a predictable company where projects and contracts are in control.
This resulted in a net cash position of €58 million at the end of '25 and a return on capital employed of almost 28%. On group level, revenue increased by almost €200 million to €2.8 billion.
All business segments contributed to this growth. However, as we've stated many times, revenue growth is not a goal in itself.
We aim for profitable growth. That is why it's even more predominant to us that last year the underlying EBITDA margin rose by 140 basis points to 9.1%, representing an underlying EBITDA increase of €53 million to €252 million.
This again demonstrates that we successfully achieved profitable growth. Net profit rose 45% versus '24 and amounted to €130 million.
Our margin-over-volume strategy continues to pay off. This leads, Ton mentioned it, to a dividend proposal of €2.37 cash per share.
The order book has risen sharply to €3.7 billion, with the largest increase being visible in the Living segment. We see the quality of the order book continuing to improve, which is encouraging.
Of the total order book of €3.7 billion, €2 billion relates to the year 2026. The remaining €1.7 billion will be executed in the years thereafter.
It is also important to note that in 2026, Heijmans will transition to a new ERP system, from SAP R/3 to S/4HANA. The costs for this changeover, budgeted at €11 million, will not be capitalized, but expensed directly through the P&L.
In 2025, we incurred more than €3 million in costs related to this transition. The remaining €8 million will be expensed in 2026.
In '25, our total cash flow amounted to €85 million, resulting in a year-end net cash position of €58 million. This includes both the effects of the acquisition of Hegeman and the purchase of our Heijmans headquarters in Rosmalen.
Solvency stands at a solid 32.9%, demonstrating Heijmans' financial health. The fact that solvency decreased 90 basis points over '25 was primarily driven by the €45 million dividend payout over the '24 financial year.
With return on capital employed of 28% compared to 19% a year earlier, we significantly improved our return on capital employed. As usual, we like to give some color to our business segments via photos.
On the three photos of Living, you can see, from left to right: INK in Eindhoven, a development of approximately 400 homes in an inner-city location between the city center and the High Tech Campus. The residential buildings are equipped by Heijmans Energy with a grid-aware heating and cooling system.
By buffering heat, the system reduces peak demand on the local electricity grid during periods of energy grid congestion. Combined with battery technology and solar energy, this allows for a smaller mains connection.
In the middle, Het Leeuwse Veld, a large-scale area development by Woon. This project adds significantly to the expansion of our property development portfolio.
Also in the last phase, we will construct 47 homes from our timber frame housing factory in Heerenveen. On the right, De Kiem in Oirschot, where we signed a letter of intent with the local municipality to realize circa 400 biobased homes.
Here we deploy our expertise in biobased construction, including the use of locally grown fiber crops such as hemp, processed into biobased construction materials. We also investigate how we can operate with as much biobased materials as possible and source locally to contribute to CO2 reduction and a circular, futureproof construction sector.
Within Living, the housing market conditions in 2025 were similar to those in '24. Home sales declined slightly to 3,103 homes sold.
Sales of ground-level, suburban homes continued to perform well. Revenue increased from €994 million to over a billion, and underlying EBITDA rose to €112 million, resulting in a strongly improved underlying EBITDA margin of 11.1%.
We also continued to expand our land bank in '25 to approximately 40,000 positions. The order book increased by roughly 30% to €1.1 billion.
The three photos of our Working segment show, from left to right: a photo of the Technology Center for the Ministry of Defence in Leusden. With the start of this project, we are strengthening our position in strategic non-residential projects.
This project underscores the confidence placed on us by an important public client and contributes to a growing order book within the Working segment. In the middle photo, the signing of the Hegeman acquisition.
With this acquisition, we strengthen our regional presence and execution capacity within Working. The addition of expertise, capacity, and market position aligns with our strategy to selectively grow inorganically in core markets.
This move increases our scale, improves our competitive position, and creates synergy benefits within the existing organization. On the right, a photo of the renovation of the Nieuwe Post in Arnhem.
This demonstrates how we sustainably and circularly transform existing buildings. Through the reuse of materials, such as donor steel, and futureproof solutions, we create value for both the client and the environment.
This type of inner-city development fits perfectly with our focus on sustainable growth and efficient capital deployment. At Working, revenue increased by nearly 9% in 2025, particularly in services.
Our recurring business continues to grow, and market conditions remain positive. The share of one-on-one projects and construction teams, where Heijmans engages early with the clients, increased as well.
Total revenue reached €690 million, and we again achieved profitable growth. The underlying EBITDA margin increased by 60 basis points to 8%.
The H2 margin was somewhat lower than H1 because, for four large new projects, we recognize revenue but not yet profit, in accordance with our accounting rules that dictate that zero profit recognition should happen during the first 20% of large project completion. Given we closed the Hegeman acquisition just before Christmas, this deal is not yet reflected in our 2025 P&L numbers.
The order book increased significantly, as expected, by more than 60% to €1.5 billion, driven by projects such as TCL in Leusden and Physics in Delft. This positions us well for '26 and '27, with strong expected growth in project activities.
With this order book, we expect significant future revenue growth in the Working segment, particularly in the project-based activities, which are expected to grow even faster in the coming years than recurring activities. Finally, three photos from the Connecting segment, with, from left to right: a photo of the opening of the TenneT assembly facility.
With this factory, designed for the rapid assembly of high-voltage fields, we support the acceleration of grid reinforcement in the Netherlands. This project aligns with the national structural investment agenda in energy infrastructure and further strengthens our position in the energy transition.
In the middle, a photo of the contract signing for a sustainable heating system for a new district in Utrecht. In Papendorp, in addition to amenities such as shops and restaurants, over 3,600 new homes will be built.
This project illustrates our role as an integral partner in area development where energy, infrastructure, and housing come together. It contributes to recurring activities in energy and heat networks and reinforces our portfolio for sustainable urban solutions.
Lastly, a photo of the renewal of the Buitenveldert runway at Schiphol, where also our collaboration with Schiphol for this type of maintenance activities was continued. This reflects the mutual trust in this strategic partnership.
Such large-scale infrastructure projects provide continuity within our connecting activities and contribute to predictable revenue and long-term customer relationships. Revenue in the Connecting segment increased to €1.1 billion, driven in particular by strong growth in energy-related activities.
Profitability also improved. Underlying EBITDA rose from €70 million in 2024 to €93 million in 2025.
The corresponding underlying EBITDA margin reached 8.2%, an increase of 110 basis points. The order book of Connecting grew to €1.1 billion, with the share of energy-related activities within rising sharply to 32%.
To conclude this section, a number of notable non-financial highlights from the past year. In November '25, Heijmans won the annual CSRD award in the large company category.
It is a valuable recognition of our endeavors on transparent and candid sustainability reporting. By the end of '25, more than 3,400 lease cars were fully electric.
We have also been extending this approach to cargo vehicles alike, although the required towing capacity or driving range is not yet always available to make the switch. It is also encouraging that both the AFM and the VBDO confirmed Heijmans' leading position in the area of biodiversity last year.
This recognition is a testament to our colleagues who work on this every day, continuously helping Heijmans to take meaningful steps forward. Finally, we now cultivate fiber hemp as a biobased insulation material for our homes.
Over the past year, we expanded this from 6 to 20 hectares, enough to provide insulation for 125 homes. With that, I would now like to hand the floor back to Ton for the outlook.
Ton Hillen
Thank you, Gavin. Looking ahead to 2026, Heijmans sees great potential.
In recent years, demand for technical service activities in non-residential buildings has grown. Clients increasingly want to be unburdened.
Building installations are becoming more complex, and more buildings must be made sustainable to reduce the environmental impact. As mentioned earlier, in the coming years there will be a strong increase in demand for non-residential and infrastructure projects.
We also see that clients are reserving capacity earlier and approaching Heijmans more frequently as a knowledge partner, from engineering to realization, and in some cases even for maintenance and operations. It's important that Heijmans deploys its capacity effectively and remains critical of the tenders we accept.
This also provides great confidence for the future, given the role Heijmans can play as a project orchestrator. Energy transition is an area which Heijmans has strengthened its position in recent years.
Significant work will continue in this segment. In the coming years, we will further integrate our energy-related activities to be even better positioned for the market and our clients.
Earlier, I spoke critically about the housing market because I see that for decades, vision, decisiveness, and consistent policy have been lacking, leading to foreign real estate investments to withdraw from the Dutch housing market, slowing the housing sector even further. Because too few homes were built in recent decades, we now face a shortage, whereas demand for new homes is high.
As I said before, build what you can build in all segments, and thereby also create a moving carousel in the existing housing market. Heijmans is well-positioned in the housing sector.
Our OPTIO and Horizon housing concepts match consumer needs well. The housing market therefore remains attractive for Heijmans, and we see strong potential.
Heijmans expects to achieve around €3.1 billion in revenue in 2026, including the Hegeman acquisition, with an underlying EBITDA growing towards 9.5%. This is already above the 7% till 9% range we previously set for 2027.
We will organize a Capital Markets Day on the 21st of May. In short, we will continue on our chosen path, with steady growth in results and revenues, thanks to sound business operations based on the principles: we do what we can, balance between risk acceptance and earning capacity, dare to say no, and margin above volume.
We most certainly have a new cabinet over the two next two weeks. The challenges for the Netherlands are significant.
With consistent policy and decisive actions of the government, we can accelerate together. Through intensified cooperation between market parties, government, and politics as a whole, we can and must take concrete steps together and build a strong Netherlands.
Heijmans is ready. It can be done together.
Thank you for your attention, and now it's place to have a few questions.
Martijn van de Koolwijk
Thank you, gentlemen. I'll start on my left.
Please state your name and the company you're representing.
Tijs Hollestelle
Thank you. Tijs Hollestelle, ING.
My first question is about the residential business. If I think about, let's say, the mix, and I think you mentioned already in the presentation that the urban development is under pressure, is there now a, let's say, quite a big difference in profitability between the suburban and the inner-city developments?
Ton Hillen
What you see in the suburban developments, the profit is a little bit higher than in the urban projects. One of the reasons is the two-third affordability regulation there now is.
Suburban is a little bit better than the urban.
Tijs Hollestelle
A little bit.
Gavin van Boekel
To build on that, Tijs, bear in mind that often suburban is constructed via land holdings. That means capital employed.
Also the margin should be better compared to inner-city developments.
Tijs Hollestelle
Yeah. It's incorporated, I get that.
Gavin van Boekel
Yes.
Tijs Hollestelle
There's also a third element in the profitability of the residential business, the wooden homes. How is that, yeah, developing throughout 2025?
Is it breakeven, and how do you look, let's say, into '26, '27?
Gavin van Boekel
It is about breakeven. We are almost there.
It's a couple of million loss, but it will be breakeven in '26.
Tijs Hollestelle
It will be breakeven or above?
Ton Hillen
No, breakeven. We think breakeven.
Let's hope it will above, but I think it will be breakeven. Okay.
Tijs Hollestelle
That's clear. Then a question on the Hegeman acquisition.
You paid €25 million, that's in the cash flow?
Gavin van Boekel
Yep.
Tijs Hollestelle
If I recall, it was a €35 million takeover price. Is there an earnout also coming later?
Gavin van Boekel
No. In the end, we paid cash €45 million, and for that we got €23 million in cash.
Tijs Hollestelle
To stand at the enterprise value. Okay.
It's not in the profit and loss, as you mentioned, but is it already included in the order book of the non-residential division?
Gavin van Boekel
No.
Tijs Hollestelle
On the balance sheet?
Gavin van Boekel
Yes.
Tijs Hollestelle
Yes. Okay.
There is a kind of a normalization in terms of percentages of revenue if I look at the trade working capital components?
Gavin van Boekel
Correct.
Tijs Hollestelle
That's also helpful. Could you give a little bit guidance on the expected CapEx for this year?
Gavin van Boekel
The reason why I'm hesitating, Tijs, is that we are looking, as we have done last year with the Ede factory for TenneT, is that we're looking, as Ton mentioned, about the production of skids, to also look for a factory in which we can produce skids. If that would not materialize, CapEx €30 million.
If that would materialize, it could easily be €10 million, €15 million more.
Tijs Hollestelle
Okay. One final question for now.
I have always had a lot of difficulty understanding it, but the correction on JVs' EBITDA went up quite significantly, hey, from 16 to 22. That means that you are cooperating more with other construction companies in projects?
Gavin van Boekel
It's more, I think, the thing with JVs is it works a bit like our normal business, hey. If we have investment in a JV, we do investment now and it can materialize into profit only in a couple of years.
Yes, on an annual level, you could deduce we do more, but that's often already started years earlier. For me, it's also why in underlying EBITDA we include JVs, because for me it's like normal way of working.
Tijs Hollestelle
It's looking back basically. Yeah.
There's also correlation between that line item and the income from JVs or participations?
Gavin van Boekel
There is a correlation, but not necessarily within the year. That makes it a bit more challenging.
Tijs Hollestelle
Can you give any guidance for this year a little bit? Because, yeah, it has a material impact potentially on the net profit expectations in the market.
Then
Gavin van Boekel
I would go for the same number as '25 as best proxy.
Ton Hillen
For both?
Gavin van Boekel
For both.
Ton Hillen
Perfect. Thanks.
Martijn.
Martijn den Drijver
Yes. Martijn den Drijver, ABN AMRO.
I'll start off with a slightly higher-level question.
Ton Hillen
I am a listener.
Gavin van Boekel
Go!
Martijn den Drijver
Order book increasingly of high quality. Mhm.
You aimed for approaching 9%. You did 9.1%.
Your medium-term target for 2030 was 10%. You're now guiding for 9.5% for 2026.
Is there any reason why we couldn't assume a medium-term target of between 9% and 11%?
Gavin van Boekel
A, to my knowledge, we haven't guided for 10% in '30. We have given a guidance of 7%
Ton Hillen
to 9%
Gavin van Boekel
for 2027. To answer your question, we'll give some more clarity on the 21st of May.
Martijn den Drijver
Okay. I'll take that for now.
I will always come back to this question about capital allocation. I just did a back-of-the-envelope calculation, hey, on your new €3.1 billion revenue, 9.5%, just to make it easier, that's roughly €300 million in EBITDA, minus let's call it €40 million in CapEx.
You have negative trade working capital. You're growing €300 million.
That's roughly, it's a cash inflow. I get to, even including the dividend payment that you're still going to pay, to over €100 million that can be added in 2026.
Gavin van Boekel
Good for your hobby.
Martijn den Drijver
Yeah. What are you going to do with all that cash?
Ton Hillen
I know that some parties are going to share buybacks. We thought also about that.
We prefer to invest in the company for further growth by example, investing in land positions for the housing market, looking for acquisitions opportunities, M&A, or business operations for making more sustainable company, and invest in innovations in the field of digitalization, modular and industrial production, Gavin also mentioned. Thereby, the increase in earnings potential was also on the long term.
We want to invest in the company. That's the preference we have.
Martijn den Drijver
Okay. No change on that element either?
Ton Hillen
No.
Martijn den Drijver
Which is fine. Then I had a question with regards to your contingent liabilities and the land bank.
On your existing land bank, what's in the balance sheet, could you give us a rough estimation of what the average age is? Is that like 10 year, 12
Ton Hillen
year,
Martijn den Drijver
15 year? Just to give us a bit of a sense of how much, between brackets, hidden reserves you have in that land bank.
Ton Hillen
I will
Gavin van Boekel
find it very difficult, Martijn.
Ton Hillen
I must give an answer later on. I don't know at the moment.
Martijn den Drijver
Is it more than 10 years? Is that a fair assessment?
Ton Hillen
There are some positions are more than 10 years, I know, but I don't know how many percent.
Gavin van Boekel
I don't know what's the duration is.
Ton Hillen
No.
Gavin van Boekel
To Ton's point, there are positions in there that have been there for a very long time. You could argue almost too long time.
There are positions in there that are very recent. I just don't know, to your underlying question for duration is, what that mix is.
It's not how we look at it, so that number I don't have on top of my mind.
Ton Hillen
I also can say that land bank position over the 10 year, then you have also an other allocation of the backfield book value before the crisis, I think there's not a reason to concern that.
Martijn den Drijver
Okay. Okay.
With regards to that €85 million increase in the contingent liabilities, I hope you will bear with me for just a second. So €85 million, let's take that an average plot size is 100 square meters, average price is 1,000, land is 100,000.
€85 million divided by 100,000 gives you roughly 850, 900 homes. The average price of a home these days is half a billion half a million.
That represents that €85 million is another €500 million addition to the backlog. Is that too simplified?
Gavin van Boekel
That is very simplified, but I understand where your calculation is coming from, hey. The fact that we added 2,000 homes to our portfolio of positions, you can do the similar calculation, you get to a similar number.
Yes.
Martijn den Drijver
Yeah. That's quite a substantial investment in your longer-term positioning and growth.
Gavin van Boekel
Yes. Bear in mind, Martijn, the way we do backlog, we only add things to the backlog when they have materialized.
Hey, we don't do backlog as in all home positions are in there. We really need the permit, the point to start.
In your underlying question, is it already in the backlog? No.
Ton Hillen
No,
Martijn den Drijver
got it. One more, and then I'll hand it over.
On Hegeman, when you bought it, it had slightly lower EBITDA margins than Heijmans.
Gavin van Boekel
Yep.
Martijn den Drijver
It's kind of dilutive in 2026.
Gavin van Boekel
Correct.
Martijn den Drijver
How long do you think you will need to get it to the required level?
Gavin van Boekel
12 months.
Ton Hillen
12?
Martijn den Drijver
You're not integrating it?
Gavin van Boekel
No.
Ton Hillen
No.
Martijn den Drijver
How do you do that?
Gavin van Boekel
Bear in mind, this is a mid-sized company, and I think there are quite a few elements that we can add from a Heijmans point of view to that company. We can also help them, especially in the bigger projects, to help them get them off the floor.
I think we at Heijmans have better skills to do that. On the other hand, where we have mid-sized projects, Hegeman can help Heijmans.
Simply in that cross-fertilization of projects, we feel we can find the 20 basis points that we need to cross the bridge.
Ton Hillen
Rebalancing the portfolio.
Martijn den Drijver
Got it. Got it.
I have some more, but I'll leave the floor, unless there's nobody.
Martijn van de Koolwijk
I'll do the walking through the microphone. No questions?
No questions. I'll shift to this point of the room.
Simon van Oppen
Hi gentlemen. Simon van Oppen, Kepler Cheuvreux.
I have a question on the order backlog of Working and the conversion. You're seeing a substantial acceleration in the order backlog of Working towards €1.5 billion.
How quickly do you expect to convert this into revenue, and what risks or obstacles are associated with this conversion? On top of that, what margin potential do you see in the segment in the long run?
Gavin van Boekel
A couple of things. The order book, like I said earlier, is really a combination of elements.
Also for Working, some of it will be in '26, but as the increase in order book is primarily in the project phase, this will take a couple of years. If I look at the longest project in there, that will be completed in 2031.
Let's say over the next 5 years, more in the nearer years, a little bit less in the further years out, will come to fruition via revenue. We feel, if we look at the tightness of the market and the fact that we are more able to get one-on-one relationships with our customers, that there is room for further margin uplift.
Simon van Oppen
That's very helpful. Thank you.
I think, on top of that, in the past you have indicated that the three different divisions would ultimately each account for roughly one-third of your revenue. We now see that Connecting is growing faster than Working, and given the potential recovery in residential construction, Living could also accelerate.
Do you still expect the Working division to eventually represent one-third of your business?
Gavin van Boekel
Yes. It's still the outlook.
We still think Working is the fastest-growing division for the upcoming years. A
Simon van Oppen
last question from my side is, yeah, we have recently heard conflicting signals from various research institutes regarding the expected increase in residential construction activity in the Netherlands. I just wanted to pick your brain on, yeah, what do you expect over the next two to three years?
Gavin van Boekel
In all fairness, I think unless something materially changes in the way particularly government is managing the challenges around permits, around nitrogen, around energy grid congestion, how to make sure that there is infrastructure to the new suburbs that are being created, unless that integrally is resolved, we don't think that number of homes will significantly change year-on-year. Glass half full, I think at least the new cabinet has laid out their plans and they really like to expedite the number of home sales in the Netherlands.
Glass half empty, that has been the case for the last 10 years, and we've not been able to do it. For us, we are currently planning on a similar level as '24, as '25, likely also going forward unless this unlock happens, which I hope for a Netherlands point of view will happen.
We are there as a market party to really also step in and try, with government, to make it happen. That requires government to really being able and willing to take consistent and tough choices.
Ton Hillen
It's an opportunity.
Leontien de Waal
Leontien de Waal, ABN AMRO. I would like to elaborate on grid congestion.
You've been investing in the district heating solution. How does that help Heijmans to keep ahead of this challenge of grid congestion?
In terms of impact, how does that work out for you, probably faster than competitors, being faster than competitors converting order backlog into real production?
Gavin van Boekel
That's what we, for example, have done with INK in Eindhoven, as seen on one of the photos, is if we would not have found to solve how to get to a lower mains connection, we would not have been able to develop that plot. The fact that we were able, via our heat systems, to actually shave the peaks out of that energy demand, we couldn't actually pull it off.
I think the capability that we're now building will help us to make sure that the backlog in property development has a higher chance of succession into actually coming to fruition. You've seen on the news yesterday that already three provinces are now being gridlocked from an energy point of view.
I'm a bit surprised that everybody is surprised by it, because you've seen this coming for a couple of years. We're trying to find the solutions.
We're looking into it. We're innovating in it.
It needs also from a Netherlands point of view to really expedite, especially from TenneT and the energy companies, the amount of new cables and stations.
Leontien de Waal
Are you able to put a number on it, or a percentage, or how it works in advance for you?
Gavin van Boekel
Now, let's be fair. This is still in its early infancy.
This is a nascent division that we have. We have now the few first clear examples where it will work.
INK it is working, Papendorp, what I said, is working, but it's still a very early stage. Let's not cry victory yet, but we're heading in the right direction.
Leontien de Waal
Thank you. I have one follow-up question with a forward-looking topic.
You've showed great performance during the past years by being, I would say, quite conservative, or at least critical concerning order intake. With all the opportunities in the energy sector, for example, wouldn't that require a bit more proactive or maybe more aggressive stance?
How do you see that?
Ton Hillen
No, we are already aggressive what we are doing. We're doing what we can do.
We have some teams we can work with, and we don't accelerate when we have no teams for to make it. What I said, we do what we can, risk balance between earning capacity and dare to say no.
When we haven't the teams, we don't do that work.
Leontien de Waal
Thanks for the clarification. Saw
Martijn van de Koolwijk
someone raising a hand over here.
Martijn den Drijver
Thank you. Martijn den Drijver, ABN AMRO again.
I just wanted to come back to one of your statement, Ton. I think you mentioned something like we're positioning infra-related better, or combining activities.
You mentioned something to position your
Ton Hillen
I don't know what you mean. Sorry.
Martijn den Drijver
I think you said something like we're going to combine or optimize our
Ton Hillen
Combining projects together. We making not only one bridge or viaduct to realization, but a combining of more of that kind of viaducts so we can acceleration and also a learning curve making, and the costs are going down then.
Make it easier. That's what I want to say.
Martijn den Drijver
I thought it was something incredibly complicated, but it's not. No.
Ton Hillen
No, it isn't. I'm not so complicated.
I'm very clear, normally.
Martijn den Drijver
You mentioned that the percentage of energy-related projects in Connecting would go up sharply. Could you tell us perhaps a little bit about what that means for margin?
The general question is, roughly by how much does an energy-related project generate a higher EBITDA margin? Is that like 30 basis points?
Is that like 50 basis points? Just to give us a bit of a feel for what it might do to EBITDA margins, that sales mix change.
Gavin van Boekel
The question is, it depends on what type of energy activity, because whether you do it for local energy companies has a different margin profile than when you do it for the guys of TenneT or Gasunie. It would easily be percentages rather than basis points.
Ton Hillen
Also when you're taking more risks because it is more complex, yeah, you have also other earnings. You can't say general, it is more profitably than other.
Make difference between the risk acceptance and also the earning capacity.
Martijn den Drijver
Got it. Got it.
The delta in revenue that you've generated in 2025, how much of that is just price, you're being able to better price a project, and how much is really volume? How should we view that in 2026, given that the labor market is still tight?
Just to
Gavin van Boekel
We don't make a split of revenue in volume and price, but you can roughly say that inflation, and maybe a bit higher given that wages is an important component, is the price index for '25. It will be the same in '26.
All our contracts at the longer term are indexed, basically all the labor wage increases out of the collective labor agreements are passed on to customers, hence passed on to revenue.
Martijn den Drijver
Maybe I should rephrase the question. Can you generate the same amount of growth, or even more, with the same amount of people, given that your efficiencies in terms of the teams that you have and the higher price per project?
Ton Hillen
That is the strategic agenda. We want to be smarter and not harder working.
We invest more digitalization, more innovation, modular production, and industrialization. This is the way we want.
Gavin van Boekel
The answer is yes, but unless we find a solve to Ton's point about how can we decouple hands from euro turnover, there will be an end at some point on this. For now, it's still feasible, hey, because if you look at 3.1, bear in mind that's including Hegeman to Ton's point.
That's already €150 million is simply inorganically. Now, then you are left with €150 million roughly, if you go from 2.8 to 3.1, then there is a price component in there, so that volume component is certainly doable.
Martijn den Drijver
Got it. Got it.
How much net and FTEs did you add in 2025?
Gavin van Boekel
Net, out of Hegeman, 300.
Martijn den Drijver
Which is what in percentages, just to refresh our memory?
Ton Hillen
5%,
Gavin van Boekel
4%,
Ton Hillen
5%. 5%, something about that.
Now
Martijn den Drijver
you can ask that question yourself then. How much did you spend on acquiring your headquarter?
Gavin van Boekel
€18 million.
Ton Hillen
€18 million.
Martijn den Drijver
€18 million. Okay.
No press release with regards to that element?
Gavin van Boekel
No. Did you expect?
Martijn den Drijver
Then my final question, the SAP HANA thing, the €11 million, why didn't you adjust for that in the P&L?
Gavin van Boekel
Adjust for it?
Martijn den Drijver
Yeah. You came up with the adjusted EBITDA, I would assume this is one-off.
Gavin van Boekel
It is a one-off, but at the end of the day, last year we had CSRD, and I already think our line stating what we exclude from EBITDA is quite a bit. I don't want to turn it into a page.
I want to be transparent about you by stating it,
Martijn den Drijver
but
Gavin van Boekel
I don't want to make it more complicated by just subtracting all bits and pieces out of the EBITDA.
Martijn den Drijver
Any other one-off pluses and minuses that you want to share? You want to share.
Gavin van Boekel
No, no. The only other one that you probably are aware of it is the impact of the share appreciation rights.
Just to go back in memory, when Heijmans turned 100, we have given each employee who was employed by that time 100 kind of shares, share appreciation rights. That implies that if your stock price doubles, like it did again last year, that provision also increases significantly.
There is an €8 million provision increase. If you go to the balance sheet, you will find it in the long positions in the provisions actually increasing by €10 million.
Over eight of that is the SARs.
Martijn den Drijver
Where in the P&L did you hide that? Because I didn't see that here.
Gavin van Boekel
Just normal running costs.
Martijn den Drijver
There's €11 million of costs in this adjusted EBITDA, which is already better than we expected.
Gavin van Boekel
If you didn't expect the SARs, yes.
Martijn den Drijver
I didn't. Thank you.
Martijn van de Koolwijk
Guys have half the questions by himself.
Tijs Hollestelle
Tijs Hollestelle, ING again. On the discussion you had with Martijn, the 300 people, is that mostly in the non-residential division?
Martijn den Drijver
Infrastructure and non-residential.
Tijs Hollestelle
It's widely spread.
Martijn den Drijver
Yeah.
Gavin van Boekel
Yeah.
Martijn den Drijver
Not in one division only.
Tijs Hollestelle
You're continuing, let's say, campaigning for more people?
Gavin van Boekel
Definitely. We need all the capable hands we can find.
Tijs Hollestelle
Clear. Then some more details questions.
First session. I also indeed noticed, let's say, all the different provisions, so that you explained that, because I think the rest more or less remains stable year-over-year.
I always looking at, let's say, the cash flow and the P&L numbers on the taxes paid and the interest. There's quite a big difference in the cash flow taxes compared to the P&L,
Gavin van Boekel
but
Tijs Hollestelle
that was also the case to a lesser extent, but the same direction in 2024. Now, I noticed that your income tax liability went from five to zero, so that partly explains it.
Is there any other hidden, let's say, delayed cash payments in this?
Gavin van Boekel
No, there's a delayed cash benefit which you will find in the balance sheet in the end. In '25, we, in hindsight, paid €7 million too much tax, which we will get back when we did the tax return for '25.
Tijs Hollestelle
That's positive for '26, you mean?
Gavin van Boekel
From a cash point of view, yes. The 57 you will see as cash out should have been 50.
Now, and then between 45 and 50, just timing differences that we have between recognizing it in the P&L and actually paying it to tax authorities.
Tijs Hollestelle
That's clear. Then back to the trade working capital, I understand indeed the dynamics with the acquisition, but the positive cash inflow was quite large in 2025, and also following quite a big positive impact in '24.
Is it wise to assume that some of the trade working capital positions on the liability side of the balance sheet will reduce a little bit this year, next year, to be conservative, or?
Gavin van Boekel
No, I don't. Basically what's happening is two things.
A, when you grow in turnover, your pre-financing, which is the core of the model in construction, actually increases. That's one.
Secondly, take Working, if we move more to project-based rather than the recurring part, you get relatively more pre-financing. Given, like we just discussed, that especially in Working, but I think also in the energy part, bigger projects will be a larger part, that will cause to more pre-financing.
Long story short, I would just expand.
Tijs Hollestelle
Clear. Thank you.
Martijn van de Koolwijk
Any more questions from the people in this room? I guess there's not.
I don't see any raising hands, thank you for coming here. Thank you for the people online listening to this audio webcast.
Wishing you a very nice weekend, and we hope that you join us again during our half-year results. Thank you and bye-bye.
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